1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical card connector, and particularly to an electrical card connector which has a reduced front-to-rear length.
2. Description of Related Art
As the popularity of notebook computers increases, integrated circuit (IC) cards are becoming more common for increasing storage capacity or interfacing the notebook computers with other devices. Card connectors are commonly used to connect mother boards of the computer with the cards. Most current IC cards and card connectors conform to the standards of Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA).
Conventional PCMCIA card connectors are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,601,438 and Taiwan Patent Application Nos. 84206174 and 84206175. Referring to FIG. 4, a conventional PCMCIA card connector 7 comprises a dielectric housing 71 and a plurality of terminals 72, 73. The dielectric housing 71 defines a plurality of receiving passageways 711, 712 extending through the housing 71 from a front face 713 to a rear face 714 thereof in upper and lower rows. Each terminal 72 (73) comprises a contact portion 72b (73b) at one end thereof, a solder portion 72c (73c) at the other end thereof, and a fixing portion 72a (73a) between the contact portion 72b (73b) and the solder portion 72c (72c). The terminals 72, 73 are assembled in corresponding receiving passageways 711, 712 of the housing 71 with the contact portions 72b, 73b extending beyond the front face 713, the fixing portions 72a, 73a secured in the receiving passageways 711, 712, and the solder portions 72c, 73c soldered to a printed circuit board 8. Because the solder portions 72c, 73c of the terminals 72, 73 are all located at a rear side of the housing 71 and in particular the solder portions 72c are located farther from the rear face 714 of the housing 71 than the solder portions 73c, the whole length of the PCMCIA card connector 7 is increased, thereby occupying increased space on the printed circuit board 8.
Hence, an improved PCMCIA card connector is required to overcome the disadvantages of the conventional electrical card connector.
Accordingly, a main object of the present invention is to provide a PCMCIA card connector having a reduced length thereby occupying less space on a printed circuit board.
In order to achieve the object set forth, a PCMCIA card connector in accordance with the present invention includes a dielectric housing and a plurality of first and second terminals received in the dielectric housing. The dielectric housing includes a pair of parallel arms and a main body between the arms. The main body comprises a frontmating face, a rear face opposite to the front mating face, a bottom face, and an upper face opposite to the bottom face. The main body defines a plurality of vertical mounting holes on the upper face and bottom face. The first and second terminals are inserted into the main body from upper and lower faces thereof, respectively. Each terminal defines a horizontal contact portion, a solder portion and a vertical mounting portion. The contact portion extends beyond the mating face for mating with the electrical card. The solder portion of the first terminal extends downwardly from rear end of the contact portion and a horizontal portion thereof extends rearwardly beyond the rear face of the housing. The solder portion of the second terminal extends from a middle of the contact portion and a horizontal portion thereof extends forwardly beyond the mating face. The mounting portion of the first terminal extends downwardly from a middle of the contact portion of the first terminal. The mounting portion of the second terminal extends upwardly from a rear end of the contact portion of the second terminal. The mounting portions are received in the vertical mounting holes thereby securing the terminals to the dielectric housing
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detail description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.